Hello.  So I have flowers to make for a wedding taking place on Saturday October 7th.  I'm not making the cakes as the mother of the bride is handling that part.  She actually makes wedding cakes herself but since she is ALSO doing her daughter's wedding dress and hosting a crowd, she ran out of time!  The stand has 7 shelves, each holding a separate tier (so a satellite cake).  Top one is a 6" for which I am doing a bride & groom owl topper.  The other 6 shelves each holds an 8" cake.   Oh and the bride hates fondant so her mother is making buttercream cakes.  I'm making the topper for each cake on a 6" plastic separator plate so they just need to pop them onto the buttercream cakes on the day.

My question is how many flowers should I make for each of the six 8" cakes?  It will be a single "dome" of flowers.  The base is a 6" separator plate on which a 4.5" styrofoam half will be glued.  The flowers will then be stuck onto/into the styrofoam and on the exposed plate.  Flowers requested:  roses, dahlias, carnations, lily of the valley, sunflowers, and red currants (the father loves to pick them).  I was thinking of adding tiger lilies (but they are pretty big), stephanotis & blossoms (latter two as fillers).  Plus fall foliage stuck here and there to produce a nice full half dome of flowers.  So what do you think as far as number of flowers/cake?  It's a 6" plate with the 4.5" half dome in the middle.  I just need a rough idea so I don't end up short of flowers once I assemble all six of these!

Also, since this won't be eaten I'm assuming ok to glue gun the styrofoam half balls to the plastic plates?

Lastly, a sticky subject.  This is for my company's director's daughter.  He asked me to help his wife out, I agreed.  Stupid me never discussed the issue of money.  They're both great people (plus the wife MAKES wedding cakes so knows how much $ and time they take) so I'm sure they won't rip me off.  So the owl topper plus 6 toppers of fall flowers made with gum paste.  How much would you seriously expect to be paid for that work?  I think my work is pretty decent (see gallery).

Anybody??? Getting a rough idea of how many pieces I need to produce per each of the 6 floral arrangements would be great!  Again, the base is a 6" plastic separator plate on which a 4.5" styrofoam half ball will be glued.  Requested flowers:  roses, dahlias, carnations, lily of the valley, sunflowers, and red currants.  I might add tiger lilies and for filler stephanotis, blossoms, and fall foliage.  

Oh and any suggestions for the coloring of the half balls and plates?  Both are white.  The cakes will be ivory buttercream.  I wasn't sure if I should paint the half ball green so it isn't so obvious under all the flowers and leaves?

Those owls are precious!  I think for the flowers, you are just going to have to use trial and error...at least I would.  And I would think using the glue gun is fine as long as it will not touch the cake.  You could put parchment paper underneath if you needed to.  And I would paint the balls green.  Could save headaches later.  Good luck and let us know how it turns out!  Sounds like it will be beautiful!

The owls are adorable. Really don't know about the flowers. I would say prepare at least 20-30 flowers for each ball. Or better yet make the enough flowers and decorate one ball. That way you would know how many for the other. Remember to allow for breakage.

The best of luck.

When I made a couple like that I didn't paint or ice the 1/2 styro ball.  Just fill in w/filler flowers.  It really didn't show.

Thanks!  Of course we're in the middle of a serious heat wave up here in Sudbury right now (over 37 with humidex).  So my gum paste owls are taking forever to dry!  And they're cracking but that will be covered up with the wings and tie/bouquet.  I thought using gum paste would = sturdier sculptures and faster drier but that isn't happening so???  Frustrating but like I said, in the end the cracks will be covered up.  I'll follow your advice and go with green but the styrofoam balls.

Yeah I think that's a good ball park for one arrangement.  I've broken down which types of flowers I'll be making and all the wires, dry times, etc. needed for each.  I'm working on another cake due this Friday so it's a tough juggling act between that and working on the wedding toppers.  Major heat wave isn't helping with dry times!

Yeah but I'm paranoid about how many flowers & leaves will be needed for a nice full arrangement.  If I end up short at least with a green ball it won't be so obvious!  We'll see by the end of this week.  I'm juggling another project right now plus a major heat wave is slowing down drying.  I need to run a search here on gum paste and dry times/cracking.  So frustrating!